JOHN Darwin was “a broken man” who still clung to the hope of reconciliation with his betrayed sons, a court heard.

He threw himself on the mercy of a judge and apologised to financial institutions and emergency services, said his barrister Peter Makepeace.

Above all, he wanted to say sorry to his sons.

“This is not the appropriate forum for doing so,” said Mr Makepeace.

“He struggles to come to terms with what he’s done to those boys.

“He continues to harbour the hope that a day will come when he can be reconciled with his sons.

“That may be as fantastical and unrealistic as the beliefs he has held throughout his life. It’s a hope that will sustain him for the rest of the period in incarceration, and what promises to be a very lonely existence when he’s released.”

The former teacher and prison officer was “hardly able to think of any rational or sane reason, let alone explanation, for his behaviour”, it was said.

“The period seems to him to be a mixture of dreams and nightmares. He can barely comprehend how he could allow himself to live in that way,” added Mr Makepeace.

He said Mr Darwin made no excuses for his actions and accepted responsibility as the “initiating and motivating force” in the fraud.

He added Mr Darwin might never have fully considered the consequences of his actions, which spiralled and “gained a life of their own”.

Mr Makepeace said: “It would appear that the first 51 years of his life were lived in an unremarkable, quiet, decent and respectable fashion.”

He described Mr Darwin as an educated, previously hard-working, law-abiding and devoted family man.

“He was very fortunate in having the support of a devoted wife and having the pride of two sons who are an extreme credit to their parents.

“It is impossible to look back on their childhood and their growing up without it being coloured by the terrible betrayal of what happened from 2002 onwards.”

The boys had enjoyed a good home life with Mr Darwin, who enjoyed sharing time, hobbies, events and holidays with his children.

“In all respects up until 2002 he seems to have been an exemplary father figure.”

Pressures may have become “extremely acute” in the lead-up to his “extraordinary behaviour” in March 2002.

He built a secure financial base on hard work and took other jobs, including breeding snails, selling garden gnomes and waiting on tables.

He supported his family, who lived a comfortable, but not lavish or luxurious, life.

But he over-reached himself when he bought The Cliff in Seaton Carew home and bedsits - his most ambitious, and ruinous, investment.

His fatal mistake was turning those properties’ interest-only mortgage into a global mortgage on all of the Darwins’ portfolio of cheap property.

He placed his whole life, his home security, pride and self-respect in that venture which was “hazardous in the extreme”, said the barrister.

He spiralled heavily into debt and struggled to make ends meet while in an isolated position at work in Stockton’s Holme House Prison, where he was an officer for 10 years.

Out of these dire straits, the elaborate fraud was born.

“He utterly accepted one of the worst aspects of his offending was getting Mrs Darwin involved at all,” said Mr Makepeace.

Mr Darwin did not contradict his wife’s memories of him as a quiet but domineering and persistent husband who would talk down to her and disregard her opinions.

She said he made her feel insignificant and treated her like one of his school pupils.

When asked in police interview if he was pulling the strings, he replied: “As always.” He said his wife would “99%” do what she was told.

A former teaching colleague of Mr Darwin’s early in their marriage backed up this picture of their relationship and spoke up for Mrs Darwin.

She said staff thought he was unnecessarily hard on his wife, he sneered and laughed at her, did not value her opinions and put her down, but she accepted this demeaning situation.

Mr Makepeace said: “The failings that Mr Darwin had as a husband which have been highlighted were failings of which he was ignorant.

“He perceived that he was in a very mutually loving relationship. If he let down Mrs Darwin, which he readily accepts that he did from 2002 onwards, that’s his greatest regret in this case.”

He said Mr Darwin’s initial amnesiac account was “fantastical and nonsensical”.

But once this facade collapsed, he was contrite and honest, “opened his heart” to police and pleaded guilty, though with overwhelming evidence.

Mr Darwin maintains that the reason he returned to the UK last December was to spend time with his sons.

Since his remand in custody, his name gained infamy and, as a former prison officer, he suffered “considerable bullying”, aggression and threats in Durham Prison.

It bred in him feelings of isolation and mistrust while he was estranged from all who previously trusted him, said Mr Makepeace. “He has nobody to blame for that but himself, but it has been an extremely difficult time.”

Mr Darwin was medicated for depression and had self harmed in a “cry for help”. He sometimes found press attention “an almost intolerable burden”, along with the pressure on his family, it was said.

David Waters QC, mitigating for Anne Darwin, said she wanted to repay those who had lost their money.

He said her involvement was instigated by “ideas man” John Darwin, the “prime mover” or “directing mind” who exerted influence or pressure.

In the early stages, she did her best to dissuade her husband from the scam, and she had “no comprehension of the extent of the deceit which would be required”, he added.

He said she faced a bleak and isolated future after being disgraced in an “unrelenting” public glare.

Page 2: Darwins: My sorrow for family

Darwins: My sorrow for family

THE chief investigating officer in the Darwins case has told how he feels their traumatised sons will never recover from the ordeal.

Detective Inspector Andy Greenwood, pictured, said that there is no doubt in his mind that Mark and Anthony Darwin had no involvement in - or knowledge of - their parents’ bizarre scheme.

Although the brothers showed no emotion during the eight-day case at Teesside Crown Court DI Greenwood said they had been devastated by the deception.

“Away from the glare of the people in the media they are very, very emotional,” he said. “They are devastated, absolutely devastated. They have been traumatised to such an extent I don’t think they will ever get over it.

“I don’t know how they are going to be able to carry on but they can hold their heads up high.”

When DI Greenwood began his investigation he feared the sons must have known about their parents’ plan.

“But the more we investigated it, the more we realised they did not know, they had gone through a particularly horrendous sequence of events.

“For her to say ‘I had to go along with it because John told me’, I just don’t know how any mother could do that.”

DI Greenwood feels there is more to the story than has yet been revealed.

“We area obviously very pleased with the verdict. But I don’t think we have really got to the bottom of everything here today,” he said.

“I’m sure there will be more stories that come to light but they have clearly been brought to task for the offences they committed.”

DI Greenwood agreed that Anne Darwin’s desperate defence was the last throw of the dice and her “marital coercion” defence which led to her sons and friends having to give evidence in the trial a “despicable” decision.

He said: “It is a lie. She was involved from the outset. She was involved in the planning of it and she was involved in the execution of it.

“She had to lie to her sons, she had to lie to her family and she had to lie to her friends.

“She put a lot of people through a lot of heartache and a lot of expense as well. To my mind, Anne Darwin has been a compulsive liar throughout this inquiry.

“She was out and out despicable and I don’t have the time of day for her. The sentence was a long one but proportionate.”

He stressed that the police will work hard to make sure the couple do not benefit financially from their huge deception and added: “I think looking back, they will wish they had taken a different course of action.”